It was because of that cognizance of something unusual,
profound, in his personality that he had first become so completely
desirable. Then as she grew to know him, so she found she knew him
less, and desired to know him more. Her love and worship of him was of
the primitive. It was such as is the love of all women when inspired
by an emotion not untouched by fear.
So, when the sounds of hoof-beats broke the night silence, she became
panic-stricken, because such a return, at such an hour, could have but
one meaning.
Then the sounds passed, and her nerves steadied, and presently a
stirring night breeze rustled the lank grass. It came over the plain
toward her. It reached her window and fanned her cheeks with its chill
breath. Then it passed, sighing round an angle of the house. Then, in
its wake, came the plaintive dole of a scavenging coyote. The
combination, to her fancy, was an echo of her feelings. It was the
sigh of despair, and the cry of a lost soul.
Presently the drowse of utter weariness descended upon her.
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